Lower Yorke peninsula Snapper chase without the snapper

After many months of consideration I finally decided to give my kayak snapper spot another go, as it is a long drive to the destination I decided I would fish 3 days which allowed for two afternoon/ evening attempts and two dawn attempts. With light south easterly winds prevailing the conditions were perfect to be out in the kayak

After many months of consideration I finally decided to give my kayak snapper spot another go, as it is a long drive to the destination I decided I would fish 3 days which allowed for two afternoon/ evening attempts and two dawn attempts. With light south easterly winds prevailing the conditions were perfect to be out in the kayak.

The first afternoon session was very slow to start off with, with only tommies, small trevally and squid coming into the burley trail. I had two large hits on my snapper line which both failed to hook up, were they snapper? Possible but not a certainty. I managed to land a decent king George whiting of 36-38cms on half a pilchard and then another on a size 12 gar hook under a float. The fishing was by no means hot but I ended up with 1 trevally, 2 whiting, a dozen tommies and 5 squid.

The next morning the snapper fishing was even slower with no hits apart from squid. As I had a substantial burley trail going out I attracted many squid and gar which made for a fun morning. By 11am I had my bag of gar and another 5 squid so it was time to go in and clean some fish.

The afternoon session was slow with a few hits on snapper lines and a salmon trout of 35cms landed there was no other excitement I managed a few more tommies on free-rigged pilchard baits and 2 more squid before I called light as there were no encouraging signs, which prompted me to stay any longer.

The final morning of my trip, I lacked ambition yet still was on the water by 6am and fishing away. I decided I would burley very heavily as the sun rose. This worked as I missed a decent hit then hooked a snapper, which I knew straight away via the head shakes. However it was not to be, after being hooked up for 10 seconds it spat the hook, although disappointing it was no disaster as I estimate the fish to have been between 30-45cms. That was it for the snapper hits and any hits on my heavier lines for that matter. So as the sun rose higher into the sky I decided to target gar, which I was again able to catch my bag limit in a few hours, as well as landing a 36cm whiting on a free rigged size 12 hook. I also landed a small Snook on a free-rigged pilchard strip.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad trip, although my targeted species didn’t show. I was able to bring home a decent seafood basket, while fishing in crystal clear waters with no one else for miles. I will again return to this area as I believe I have a new plan for my next inshore snapper attempt.